SIMDECK OPEN DAY – This Friday and Saturday

Ever dreamed of sitting in an actual formula race and taking it for a spin on a world famous circuit. To celebrate the upgrade of the SimDeck Formula Race Centre we are holding the first of a series of Open Days – Friday 6 and Saturday 7 February.

Relive the experience that saw Scott Dixon win the prestigous Murray Halberg Sportsman of the Year Award on Tuesday night for his amazing achievements at winning the 2008 Indy Car Series Championship – Amercia’s greatest racing spectacle. Come and experience high speed adrenalin rush in the life size and life like virtual SimDeck world.

SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR DADS – Here is something fun you can do with your son for FREE THIS WEEKEND.

We are looking forward for all boy racers, mums with a burning ambition to lay some rubber, youngsters who one day dream of owning their own race car, and adults reliving some lost dreams to step up to the challenge and try a few laps on a virtual race circuit in a Formula race car. Your chance to celebrate being a Kiwi Champion at our Waitangi Weekend Celebrations.

With speeds of over 300kph, split second timing, accurate driving lines and serious concentration we expect to see some nervous drivers taking the controls.

The Open Day is completely free to visit and run a few laps through out the day. A voluntary gold goin donation can be made that will be given to http://www.kidscan.org.nz. This will be a prelude to being part of and supporting the KidsCan television Big Night In telethon coming to your TV screen later in the year.

If you make a gold coin donation then you have a change to win a 60 minute sim session for four people. Challenge: Fastest driver on two laps at Pukekohe Circuit will be our winner

We want people to experience something very unique that previously has not been readily available in NZ. The enormous 2.5m wide virtual reality screen puts you into a full life size virtual world where you feel every bump of the road and shudder of the engine.

Recent visitors have been espousing how life like the experience is which is what we are aiming to achieve and to take the realism way beyond what people can re-create at home.

We are looking forward to a steady stream of drivers all day.
Just to add some edge and reputation at stake elements the fastest certified driver will win a 1 hour session for 4 people.

If you want to get a few tips on driving at high speed, then this link will help you get into the correct frame of mind…see you on the Starting Grid!
Location Unit 14, 6 Airborne Road, Albany, North Shore
Open Day Hours 9.30am – 4pm
Date Friday 6 and Saturday 7 February
Car parking – Please park out on the street and wander down to SimDeck. Lookout for the race driver on the balcony.
Cost – COMPLETELY FREE for a few laps.
Giving Forward – We will have an opportunity for you to make a voluntary gold coin donation which we will forward to http://www.kic.org.nz

Look out for our driver and you'll know you're in the right place, or if you can see the activity of visitors waiting their turn.

Our Pit Manager reckons we need to have a BBQ susage sizzle going throughout the day so that will also be available so you can have a drink and bite whilst you wait to impress the crowds.

After appearing on national radio with Danny Watson on Radio 2ZB’s “Tech Tuesdays” programme this week talking about this uniquely kiwi experience, we have been told we could cause a traffic jam out on the street. Now that is kinda cool a virtual car race creating a real world traffic jam. Of course this fits right into our motto. “SimDeck creating the reality in virtual reality”.

So if you come along please wait your turn with a smile and everyone will get the chance to race…even if we need to run the Open Day again on another weekend.

Car parking available in the marked Visitors Car Parking or out on the street.

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SimDeck Sim Centre upgrades in time for A1GP

We have been working on the upgrade programme here at the SimDeck Formula Simulator centre as we launch a number of new initiatives to bring the A1GP, Formula One and Indy500 experience alive for anyone prepared to take control of the wheel.

The larger centre channel ICE Digital Daytime Projection screen in place with the car parked up in the pit lane at Spa.

The SimDeck car bay now is a uniform scheme elminating visual distractions and the centre piece is a stunning 2.54m x 1.97m centre channel ICE Digital Daytime Screen. This center channel now almost fills the driver’s horizontal field of view and the typical sky in a virtual world is where it should be – above the drivers direct field of view!

Additional upgrades about to be implemented will be left and right channels providing a full visual immersion for the driver. The new upgrades timed perfectly with the Saturday qualifying round of A1GP’s Taupo Round and the first time this year of the new A1GP car GPS system. For visitors to the SimDeck Centre whilst racing in the various con-current circuits they will be able to keep up-to-date in real time with each of the actual countries car’s performance, position, gears, speed on the virtual dashboard.

An uncanny moment in American history did not go un-noticed down here at SimDeck. Whilst President Obama was swinging the paint roller in Washington DC we were doing the same here at the Formula Race car centre down under in NZ.

Here at the SimDeck Simulation Training centre we have the most life like and realistic open cockpit race car simulator in New Zealand and will also serves as a demonstration centre for potenial business clients wanting to enter into the world of high speed simulation.

No its not President Obama pitching in with the roller brush, but sim driver Kevin putting on the finishing coat in the Sim Car Bay.

The realism has not been lost on many visitors when they realise that by wheeling the huge center display channel out of the way, that the SimDeck250 race car could actually be driven straightout the building and down the road. Overall it is part of the core vision of SimDeck …”we put the reality into virtual reality”.

SimDeck Simulator Cars will one day race in actual A1GP and F1 scheduled races.

SimDeck edges closer to be able to race the Pet250 race car / simulator in some of the world’s most well known open wheeler real world Grand Prixs. Racing in the A1 Grand Prix, Indy 500 Formula One and similar in real time, against actual team drivers, on the same track and on scheduled real world racing events will be a reality in the very near future thanks to our colleaques from iOpenerMedia.

In August 2008, iOpener fully stressed and tested the system in real-time against the drivers of the Moritz Racing team driving on the Belgian Zolder circuit. The test was a great success and members of the Opener team and some guests were actually able to race from behind a PC in real-time against the drivers of the Moritz Racing team.

Virtual AI race cars racing against SimDeck Cars or real world GP cars racing against a SimDeck car racing on the virtual version of the track.... putting the reality into virtual reality.

iOpener’s CEO Andy Lürling says. ‘And we are really satisfied with the results’. One of the main concerns was whether all in-car equipment would hold out for 24 hours, and it did. ‘Surviving 24 hours of shocks and the heat, sometimes reaching above 70 degrees, gives us confidence that the equipment will perform in all other race conditions’, Lürling mentions.

‘The reason for Moritz Racing Team to cooperate in testing the iOpener technology is that we are a team that stands for the improvement of motorsports in general’, driver and team owner Bert Moritz explains. ‘And we (Moritz Racing) believe that iOpener has an application that if used wisely by the race association will stimulate a new channel to attract a new younger target group to motorsports’. Moritz is convinced that this immersive feature will attract more sponsors to the motorsport. He adds; ‘Personally, I also really like that iOpener’s technology can be used to train young drivers and optimize their driving skills’.

The importance of the iOpener technology cannot be understated and is one of the final steps in the SimDeck simulation concept. It is destined to be one of the most important developments that converges gaming with real life racing the gaming community around the globe has seen.

The Simdeck experience already currently converges an actual petrol powered race car from the road into any world-wide virtual circuit, life size, life like digital display and constant engine and road environments shuddering throughout the car. Optional high quality 3D sterescopic 2m wide images, surround imaging, simulated 1G gravity motion are available for clients. To be able to race against Lewis Hamilton in real time in Melbourne from any world location and especially in the SimDeck car redefines what is real and what is virtual.

iOpenerMedia is a spin-out of the European Space Agency Incubator Programme, received EUR 4.1 Million from Triangle Venture Capital Group to make its technology ready for market introduction and is expecting 2009 to be the year sim racing changes forever. During November 2008, AGIT (the regional development agency for the Technology Region Aachen, Germany) announced that iOpener was announced as the winner of the Innovation Award in the category fast growing successful ‘young companies’.

Space age technology will have you racing against real cars in real time from the comfort of your lounge or in a SimDeck Race Car.

Andy Lürling, was interviewed about the immersive new technology which makes it possible to play in real-time against the pro’s from behind your (game) computer. Click here to download.

GPS Data locates the car on the track whilst G Force, brakes, gears and speed is displayed in real time over the Internet.

This weekend A1GP will launch the A1GP Dashboard, a new live GPS-style mapping and telemetry system to enhance fans’ viewing of races for the rest of the season at A1GP.com. Fans from around the world are able to access a host of new information including real-time position maps, the exact location of every race car on track, live feed of dashboard information from every A1GP nation’s car. Online viewers on the internet can select to view any of the 22 team’s real-time steering wheel data, including speed, throttle pressure, G-Force, gear and the drivers use of the crucial PowerBoost button. This is the same data each team evaluates to help decide race strategy and the all-important pit stops. The Dashboard system made its debut at the last race in Sepang, Malaysia.

Accurate times, positions are all conveyed in real time.

This weekend visitors to SimDeck Formula Simulators will be able to race on the virtual Taupo Circuit knowing that in the very near future it will be an actual car over taking them in their virtual world from one of the prestigous global Grand Prix.

The technology is not just suitable for racing but could be applied to flying against F16 fighter planes. Currently one of ICE AV’s international partners has already developed a patented solution that allows soldiers in the Dutch Army to fight in virtual simulated battle fields all within the safety of a warehouse.

Social media, the online world of social networks for business.

Some would call me a geeky nerd, well I am too handsome for that, however it is no denying I have alot of things in common with that category, moreso though I have had this life long involvement in communicating and networking in one form or another.

It started first by corresponding with a son of two doctors who lived in Romania in the early 1960’s, from there I learnt how to make chemicals to process film and paper to make photos, I progressed to video as soon as the Government took off the license restrictions. Today more than ever before communication in the business world on a global scale has changed the landscape for ever and is pretty much the core to what I do.

Would your company like a free blog like this blog here at SimDeck. I don’t mean the design but the concept, where you can communicate daily with your customers and visitors, where they can talk with you, where you can share with others. Bring your brand alive in the world of social online media.

If you book a SimDeck Simulator for your next commercial event, I’ll personally spend one hour with you compilmentary, showing you how you can get up and running within an hour for virtually zero cost with your own company blog.

For many though this social networking, Face Book, Blogging and a zillion other avenues must seem daunting to the new comer. Simulation racing and gaming is one industry where we have been online and very active as a community, we don’t just talk and race, but a huge amount of the networking is around problem solving, computer programmes, networked racing – imagine a global talk fest all talking at once,,,well we have the similar where it is talking and racing!, the various online communities all have their heros, champions, contributors, hosts. For example, if we had to rely on walking to a retail shop to get our software and that was the sum of the community interaction, then the simulation industry would be nothing ressembling what it is today.

From a business perspective, simulation & gaming is probably further down the track in this respect than many other industries, nevertheless we still face many core business growth, brand, customer experience, communication issues just like you.

I thought these two very valuable links might help your company to enter the world of Online Business Social Networking.

The first is from Valeria Maltoni from the Conversation Agent, and is a brilliant piece for those who want to start blogging and not sure where to start. Her comment sums it up nicely, ….”For businesses especially, people have come to expect that you have a Web presence. But, when they research you or your type of business, they prefer to read what others are saying about you, or they want to see you in action – read how you solve problems, what kind of expertise you have, etc.

Start a business blog today, as they will become the next must have communication tool for companies.

The second is a free 32 page FREE ebook on Marketing in 2009, instigated by Valeria Maltoni featuring the contributions of 12 professional experienced online marketers and courtesy at the web site of the lovely Amber Naslund. Well worth reading whatever business you are in., actually let me rephrase… If you are in business you had better make this a must read.

Marketing in 2009, the year of the Great 21st Century Recession !

Bonus Link Download – When you click on the above downlaod graphic, make sure you scroll to the bottom of Amber’s link, just above her photo is an excellent eBook (free for download to get you started in the world of blogging).

Formula 1’s virtual reality

The decision to ban all circuit testing in the Formula 1 season was designed to save the teams money. For the big teams, however, the battle has simply moved from the race tracks to the factories where advanced simulation technology will take over from actual running.

A real car that is at home on the track as it is in a virtual world

Teams these days are using an array of different tools to make the cars go faster. These include highly-advanced rolling-road wind tunnels, transient dynos and seven-post rigs. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is developing fast. The goal of all of these expensive items is to ensure that the racing cars are as competitive as possible – and as reliable. But simulation techniques in Formula 1 are now beginning to go far beyond that. Computers crunch away to work out every conceivable race strategy and increasingly the teams are realising the value of what are known as “driver-in-the-loop simulators”. This means that rather than engineers playing with computers, as happens with other simulation, the F1 drivers sit in “virtual” F1 cars and drive them….read the rest of the article by clicking here.
January 14, 2009, BY Joe Saward

In addition we have released some rarely seen photos of the PET250 model Formula Simulator in construction.

Working on both PET250 and 110 models. Real cars that put the reality back into virtual reality.

Packing in the electronics converges the real world with the virtual.

All the sim parts need to be able to drive an actual car.

Simulators that can do donuts in the real world!!

Testing well underway by our rookie driver.

Testing completed and ready for some high speed action.

500kg, 4m of high speed simulatior at a circuit near you.

Who wants to come racing?

The range of SimDeck Formula Simulators are unique in the way we bring the virtual race experience alive. With 3 of our models you can race them on an actual road, and all use exclusively the ICE Digital Daytime Screen technology, allowing stunning life size images. “SimDeck, putting the reality into virtual reality”.